“Have I missed out on my life?”: Why it’s not the right question to ask yourself
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On a beach in Santiago, Chile. MATIAS BASUALDO/ZUMA/SIPA
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In times of existential questioning, are you wondering about the meaning of your life? According to philosopher Thibaut Sallenave, it would probably be better to seek out "supplements of being." Here's some explanation.
Perhaps it's a question of temperature or time, which, as the song says, "lasts a long time" ? In any case, summer and its slowdown are often conducive to major personal questioning. Are we in the right place? Have we chosen the right job, the right partner, the right life? Weren't there other paths to take? These questions are based, more or less, on the same intuition: that we are "missing out on our life."
A curious expression, indeed. The philosopher Thibaut Sallenave had the good idea to take it seriously in an essay simply titled "Can we really miss out on our life?" (L'Aube editions). As you might have guessed, the answer is somewhat in the question. But the interesting thing is that this preparatory class teacher at a public high school in Versailles revisits a number of stereotypes that clutter our thinking...
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